Thursday, December 13, 2012

The comparison is there, even if some Yankee fans are reticent to concede it. When you watch Kevin Youkilis moan about a close call, fling his bat or go into a dugout rage after an out, you should be reminded of another fiery player from the recent past. You should see shades of Paul O’Neill.

Before some of the O’Neill acolytes explode, relax. This doesn’t mean Youkilis and O’Neill are exactly the same player with the exact accomplishments. Of course, they’re not. What it means is that Youkilis and O’Neill share the same style for playing baseball with an intensity that’s visible to everyone and with an approach that chases perfection.

...For the Yankee fans who say that they can’t or won’t accept Youkilis, they need to take a quick baseball history lesson. After the Yankees added Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon, three players with deep roots in Boston, all three eventually won at least one World Series title in New York.

Youkilis is a Yankee because the Yankees needed him, needed someone reliable to fill in until Rodriguez returns from hip surgery. If you watch Youkilis play, you will see an ornery guy who doesn’t care if the other team dislikes him. Youkilis once told me that “other teams aren’t supposed to like you.” There’s something for Yankee fans to like about Youkilis now. Look closely. He’ll remind you of O’Neill.

“I really didn’t think I was like Paul O’Neill until someone mentioned it to me,” Youkilis said. “I have a lot of respect for him. I’ve always liked guys that played with a lot of fire.”

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Agreed, Rowland. When I see O'Neill clips, I am reminded of what Rodney Dangerfield's Thornton Melon said about his professor in "Back to School" - "he really seems to care....about what, I have no idea"?.

Yankee fans loved O'Neill because he produced. Yankee fans will love Youkilis if he produces. They'll hate him if he doesn't. And if he helps them in a (purely hypothetical at this point) postseason, he'll quickly be called a True Yankee. Nobody but a ####### moron cares about whether a player is demonstrative or not, or slams bats against a water cooler, or screams at umpires, as long as he produces. And why should anyone give a crap about what fans of other teams think of your favorite players? Did Giants fans ever care about what the rest of the world thought of Barry Bonds?

I can never keep the fandoms of the various Howies around here straight, but let me know when you've ever seen a fan base that didn't wind up loving an intense and productive player whose obnoxiousness was consistently directed at either opposing teams, umpires, or himself. The list of such "intense" players extends from here to the moon, so it shouldn't be too hard to find one among that large group who was scorned by his team's fans if he truly ever existed.

I got this crap my entire professional life. Just beacuse I wouldn't let loose with streams of obscenities or make a show of throwing inanimate objects after a home run, loss or bad outing, it was assumed that I did not care. And an Ivy League degree made it even worse!

People approach pressure and failure in different ways and have different coping mechanisms. None of the choices is necessarily superior, but acting like a giant douche seems to be something that reaches the "won't somebody please think of the children" that emulate their sports heroes stage.

That is quite the card. Brenly looks like a 60 year old Just For Men card carrying member, Chili looks like he drew his facial hair on with a permanent marker and Bob looks like he's 19. Which he may well have been, so I guess normal.

You remember right, Andy. Youkilis was beloved in Boston, and was seen as having been shipped out of town to satisfy Valentine's ego. I'm curious to see how he'll be welcomed at Fenway when he comes back with the Yankees.

I actually called him Paul O'Neill 2 in a response to Joe Posnanski this morning. He's the kind of guy you hate when he's playing for a rival because he's a red-ass, but you love him when he plays for you because he's fiery.

The baseball card picture is from the spring of 1981 when I was a non-roster spring training invitee, so I was 25. I got married the next year - and that quickly helped me catch up to the normal aging process.

The baseball card picture is from the spring of 1981 when I was a non-roster spring training invitee, so I was 25. I got married the next year - and that quickly helped me catch up to the normal aging process.

I just looked up the roster of the 1981 Phoenix Giants--Brenly was 27 and Chili was 21. Davis put up some seriously good numbers that year* which is why he was hyped so heavily in 82

You remember right, Andy. Youkilis was beloved in Boston, and was seen as having been shipped out of town to satisfy Valentine's ego. I'm curious to see how he'll be welcomed at Fenway when he comes back with the Yankees.

I actually called him Paul O'Neill 2 in a response to Joe Posnanski this morning. He's the kind of guy you hate when he's playing for a rival because he's a red-ass, but you love him when he plays for you because he's fiery.

I just find it funny to read comments suggesting that "redasses" from Team A (O'Neill, Clemens) are somehow monsters while at the same time not noticing the "fiery" players on your own Team B (Youkilis, Varitek) that you've been rooting for all along. I've always thought Petunia Pedroia was the most annoying sawed off runt I'd seen since the days of Eddie Stanky, but there has hardly been a month when I didn't wish that the Yankees had about half a dozen like him. Same with Youkilis and Varitek when they were in their primes. Beckett's another story, but that's only because I'm not overly fond of potential clubhouse cancers, which the Yankees have been mostly fortunate enough to have avoided in the past 15+ years.